


Pendulum

by Skye_Maxwell



Series: Follow the Stars [2]
Category: Persona 4, Persona Series
Genre: Domestic Fluff, Dorks in Love, Fluff, Kissing, M/M, Moving In Together, One Shot, Post-Canon, Romance, Sequel, Sleepy Cuddles, Soulmates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 06:36:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,803
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17893379
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skye_Maxwell/pseuds/Skye_Maxwell
Summary: On their first day in their new home, Souji and Yosuke think back to their first kiss and think forward to what they want for their future together.





	Pendulum

**Author's Note:**

> Warning! Fluff Level: Fatal
> 
> This takes place between Chapter 4 and Chapter 5 (the epilogue) of my story “Follow the Stars.” I definitely recommend reading that one first.

_Remember the first time that we kissed? It felt like a planet forming._

–“A Youth Written In Fire,” Snow Patrol

* * *

It was starting to get dark in the living room, so Yosuke picked a lamp up off the floor and looked around for a table to put it on. He quickly realized that pretty much every flat surface was covered in boxes, unpacked items that had no place to go yet, and takeout containers from when their friends had been over earlier to help. He shrugged and put the lamp right back on the floor, plugging it into the nearest outlet. It didn’t provide a ton of illumination, but it did create a warm yellow glow on that side of room.

“Good enough,” he said to himself, and then he scanned the room through all the mess, ready for his next task.

Yosuke plopped down on the couch next to Souji and promptly took over his personal space, swinging his legs up over Souji’s lap and letting the side of his head fall against his chest. He crossed his arms and wiggled around a bit, settling himself against the curves of Souji’s body. Once he was comfortable, he closed his eyes and sighed contentedly.

“Hello,” Souji said with amusement, resting his chin on top of Yosuke’s head.

“Hey.”

“Tired?”

“Exhausted.”

“Same. I’m happy, though,” Souji said, pulling Yosuke’s crossed arms apart so he could hold one of his hands.

“I’m happy too. Really, really happy,” Yosuke breathed into Souji’s shirt.

The pattern of his words brought Souji back to the day they had confessed their feelings for each other.

_“I love you too. I really, really love you.”_

Souji smiled to himself, teasing Yosuke’s fingers apart with his own so he could lace them together tightly.

“Hey, Yosuke?”

“Hm?”

“Remember the first time we kissed in the TV World?”

Yosuke lifted his head to give Souji a weird look, but it was lost on him since he was staring pretty hard into the distance.

How the _hell_ was Yosuke supposed to forget their first kiss?

“Nope, I forgot,” Yosuke replied, turning Souji’s face with his fingertips and waiting for that faraway gaze to focus in on his face. Souji looked confused, and Yosuke leaned in with a smile. “Remind me?”

Yosuke pursed his lips up at Souji, waiting.

Souji blinked and then grinned, effectively charmed (as he always was when Yosuke was deliberately trying to charm him).

He quickly brought his lips down to Yosuke’s, relishing in how warm they were compared to his own. Sometimes he felt a little bad since he always seemed to run colder than Yosuke, but Yosuke was more than happy to share his excess warmth.

“Mmm, think I’m starting to remember,” Yosuke said.

“Cool,” Souji said vaguely, no longer remembering where he had been going with his initial question or even what Yosuke had been saying (he had planned on crafting a clever reply, but now he had nothing).

All he knew was what he currently _wanted,_ so he held Yosuke in place and pressed in farther. They hadn’t kissed since early that morning, after all. He felt deprived.

He was honestly upset that he didn’t have the energy to take it past a bit of making out (they were delightfully _alone_ in this place), but such was his fate after a long day of moving.

When he finally remembered what he had wanted to ask Yosuke, Souji said, “Our first kiss… did anything weird happen to you?”

Yosuke took a moment to process Souji’s words, not understanding why Souji was talking instead of kissing him.

“Something weird…? Yeah, definitely!”

Souji leaned forward, intrigued. Had the Persona thing happened to Yosuke too?

“It was super weird,” Yosuke continued, furrowing his brow as if it was a great task to remember. “As soon as you kissed me… I fell in love with you.”

Souji nearly choked, turning his head away from Yosuke to cough several times.

Yosuke dropped his head back onto Souji’s chest and pressed his ear close to his heart, infinitely amused by his reaction.  

“Just kidding,” Yosuke said with a cheerful laugh.

“Kidding?” Souji asked weakly.

“Yeah, I was in love with you way before that.”

Souji twitched violently and tugged the collar of his long-sleeve shirt down and away from his neck, feeling like he was about to suffocate.

“I don’t think you understand what you’re doing to my heart right now.”

“I think I understand perfectly,” Yosuke grinned, feeling the violent pounding of Souji’s heart against his cheek. “Man, is this what a heart attack sounds like?”

Desperately trying to get the conversation back on track, Souji asked, “Nothing Persona-related happened to you?”

“Oh yeah, something like that did happen actually,” Yosuke recalled, lifting his head so he could be serious for a minute. “It felt kinda how it feels when I summon my Persona, but I wasn’t doing it on purpose. When you got all upset and said you couldn’t help being in love with me, it felt like he kinda flew out of me, like he was forced out. That’s when I dropped my jar. I had half a mind to look over my shoulder and see if he was literally standing there, but kissing you seemed to be the more pressing matter at the time. But as soon as I kissed you, it felt like he kinda snapped back into me, like a rubber band. It was pretty weird, now that I think about it. Did something like that happen to you?”

“Yeah, but it felt like _all_ my Personas came out. Sounds like it happened to you first though,” Souji said in wonder at Yosuke’s description of the timing. “Mine came out when you kissed me and went back in when I kissed you back.”

“Ha, really? That’s crazy, man! It’s like our Personas were taking turns swinging out of us like a—” he made a little swinging motion in the air with his index finger.

“Pendulum?”

“Yeah, that thing.”

“Why do you think that happened?” Souji asked, pulling Yosuke’s legs closer.

“I mean, what else could it be? It was just like, our souls reacting to each other, I guess. Wow, that would sound really cheesy if I didn’t mean it literally.”

Souji chuckled and then started pressing kisses to Yosuke’s temple, talking between the kisses. “Our souls reacting, huh? That makes sense. I was really happy, but it also felt like I could feel all my Personas’ happiness on top of that.”

“All of them? You sure? There wasn’t one in the back that was like, ‘Ugh, it’s that freakin’ Magician guy again, what a tool’?”

“None of my Personas think you’re a tool,” Souji said, moving his lazy kisses down to Yosuke’s cheek. “Every part of my soul loves you.”

“Awww,” Yosuke said exaggeratedly, making Souji smile. “Well, my one Persona loves you too. I wish I had more Personas like you, though.”

“Why?” Souji asked, pausing the kisses to look Yosuke in the eyes.

“Isn’t it obvious? You’re so powerful. In battle, there’s nothing you can’t do,” Yosuke said. “But even outside battle, it’s like your soul is just… fuller.”

“Fuller?” Souji frowned. “I think of it as being more divided, or confused.”

“What? No way. Having more Personas makes you more interesting, and complex.”

“I’d rather have one like you and everyone else.”

“Why the heck would you want that?”

“It’s like you guys’ souls know exactly who they are and what they’re meant to do. They’re masters of their skills. Your souls are more _focused,”_ Souji said, actually sounding a little frustrated. “And while some of my Personas are kinda cool, some of them are really weird or evil-looking or just plain embarrassing. And I didn’t do anything to earn any extra powers; I still don’t understand why I’m the one who has them.”

“Souji… I’m just me, but _you…_ you can be anything.”

 _“Just_ you?” Souji asked, not liking that choice of words.

“Come on, Partner. The Fool is represented by zero, right? That’s supposed to be infinite possibilities.”

“Zero seems more like nothing to me. At least one is _something.”_

“Yeah, one is the lowest _something_ possible. But you have Personas of every arcana, so you’re not nothing; you’re everything.”

“Yosuke…” Souji grumbled in disagreement (though he was also kind of flattered that Yosuke was trying so hard to counter his claims), leaning in to try and kiss Yosuke’s lips so this conversation could be over.

“No,” Yosuke insisted, putting his palm over Souji’s mouth and pushing his face back. “You’re _special._ Don’t downplay that.”

Souji kissed Yosuke’s palm instead and then pulled back, sighing deeply.

“Fine, but don’t downplay yourself either. You didn’t need more than one Persona to save me.”

Yosuke’s eyes lit up at the praise, which subsequently made Souji’s gaze darken. Now he was _really_ upset that he didn’t have the energy to take things further tonight.

“Thanks, Partner,” Yosuke said warmly, content to leave the conversation at that. “You may kiss me now.”

Souji smirked and then moved in, and they used what energy they had left to give each other slow, tender kisses.

They separated when they were (regretfully) depleted, and Yosuke flopped backwards onto the couch.

“Partner?”

“Yeah?”

“I wanna watch _Panda Kopanda.”_

Souji laughed affectionately. “Okay, but do you know where the DVD is? Or the DVD player?”

“I do, actually. The DVD is in my ‘Movies’ box, and the DVD player is in the ‘Electronics’ box,” Yosuke said, pointing with his foot to a pile of boxes in the corner.

“You only know that because you watched me pack and label the boxes for you.”

“No one made you do that! You’re the one who decided the way I packed things wasn’t good enough and repacked everything.”

“You were just throwing things in that didn’t even go together. You had picture frames and soap and underwear all in one box,” Souji said, sounding distressed about it even now.

“The underwear is soft, so it would have protected the picture frames, and the soap would have made the underwear smell nice.”

“Don’t act like you planned that.”

“You just wanted to touch all my underwear.”

“I _was_ intrigued by the large number of different colors and patterns,” Souji recalled.

“You are _impossibly_ dorky,” Yosuke laughed.

“So are we actually gonna watch the movie? Or are you too tired?”

“Never too tired for _Panda Kopanda,”_ Yosuke yawned. “I’ll go open the boxes if you’ll set up the TV.”

“Okay,” Souji agreed, nudging Yosuke’s legs off his lap since he was making no move to get up himself. “Open the ‘Blankets’ box too.”

“You cold?” Yosuke asked before rolling off the couch, standing, and stretching.

“Not particularly,” Souji said, standing up as well. “I just put your panda in that box.”

“Ha, okay,” Yosuke laughed lightly.

Shortly after Yosuke’s birthday the year before, they had watched _Panda Kopanda_ with Teddie and Nanako, both of whom instantly adored the movie (the film rated Two Paws Up, according to Teddie).

Since the movie was kind of old and Souji couldn’t find much merchandise for it online, he commissioned Kanji to make stuffed versions of the three main characters: Nanako got a doll of the little girl, Teddie got a plush of the baby panda, and Yosuke got a plush of the big papa panda.

About fifteen minutes later, they had everything set up, and about five minutes after that (once Yosuke had a chance to sing along with the movie’s opening theme song), he was out cold, his hands loosely holding the sides of Papa Panda in his lap.  

Souji had known this was going to happen, but he didn’t mind.

He quietly stood up and went to the open ‘Blankets’ box, taking out a nice large blanket for them to share. Before returning to the couch, he pulled out his cell and took a quick snap of Yosuke. He thought about sending it to Teddie and Nanako, and then to Kanji since he made the plush, and then to the Investigation Team group chat because he couldn’t think of anyone who wouldn’t benefit from seeing such cuteness, but then he decided to just keep his new favorite picture to himself.  

Souji then sat down gently, a few inches away from Yosuke. He tucked the blanket around both of their laps, making sure not to cover up Papa Panda and carefully watching Yosuke’s face. When Yosuke didn’t stir, Souji experimentally scooted closer. There was still no reaction, so he indulgently pressed himself into Yosuke’s side and wrapped his arms around him.

He took a moment to admire the way Yosuke looked with the glow of the TV on his skin and how firm his body felt against Souji’s. He could get used to having access to this all the time.

He pressed a kiss to Yosuke’s jaw and then buried his face between Yosuke’s shoulder and the back of the couch.  He listened to the movie for a few minutes, but once the rhythm of Yosuke’s breathing started to lull him to sleep, he decided not to fight it.

When Yosuke woke up, he quickly realized he had slept through most of the movie. He opened one eye and peeked down at Souji, grinning when he saw he had fallen asleep too.

Before they had moved in together, a handful of people had questioned (some more harshly than others) whether or not it was a good idea for the two of them to live together when they’d been dating less than a year.

_It’s too soon to be taking a step like this. Living with someone is a lot different than dating them. Sharing a space and expenses is only going to put strain on your relationship. You haven’t even made a long-term commitment to each other. What if you break up?_

But wrapped in Souji’s arms on _their_ couch in _their_ home, Yosuke couldn’t believe it was anything less than right. Souji had literally included in his confession that he wanted to live with Yosuke (blame _him_ for jumping the gun), and Yosuke wanted what Souji wanted.

And for the record, he _was_ going to marry Souji.

Souji didn’t know it yet, but there was no way in hell he was gonna let Souji _not_ marry him.

One way or another, even if certain people weren’t going to recognize it, Yosuke was going to keep this man to himself forever.

He was already banking on it; he had been for a while. The savings he had worked hard for and stockpiled in the last few months (on top of the savings for this rental) for a ring were enough of a testament to his commitment, he thought, even if he was the only one who knew about it. And even without that, the love he had for Souji was enough of a testament on its own. Their bond was unlike anything else; it spanned much more time than the months they’d been officially dating, and it went much deeper than most relationships, romantic or otherwise, would ever go.

The ending theme song of the movie started playing, and suddenly Souji’s sleepy voice started humming along. Yosuke laughed and hummed along too, bobbing his head and making his Papa Panda dance in his lap.

When the song was over, they both laughed at the ridiculousness of it all, and Souji had the fleeting thought that he wanted to marry Yosuke.

He sat up quickly, alarmed.

Where had _that_ come from? He was getting ahead of himself again. They’d _just_ moved in together. They needed time to adjust to their new life and figure out what they wanted for the future. It was crazy enough that Yosuke wanted to date him, but _marry_ him? Souji was sure the thought wouldn’t be on Yosuke’s radar for a long time, if ever. And honestly, who did Souji think he was, to dream so big?

Still, even with all those logical thoughts swirling around in his mind, Souji wanted it.

He wanted to marry him.

When Yosuke gently took his hand and stroked it with his thumb, wearing a look of concern, Souji had to wonder if it really wasn't too crazy of a thought.

For now though, Souji was going to keep his little dream to himself. He could calm down and let them get past an anniversary or two at least.

“What’s up, Partner?” Yosuke finally asked.

“Our one-year anniversary is coming up in a couple months. What do you wanna do for it?”

“Our anniversary, huh?” Yosuke said, suddenly realizing that could be the perfect day to…

Yosuke’s thoughts raced wildly with the beginnings of a plan, but he just smiled and calmly said, “I want… something simple.”

**Author's Note:**

> I don’t know if I’ll add anything else on to the original story, but I really like this universe. ^_^ Thank you for reading!


End file.
